Skip to main content

Pak bourse hits all-time high

Published: Friday, 28 March, 2008, 09:15 AM Doha Time

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s stock market closed at a record high yesterday, buoyed by a sense of political stability in the country after a new prime minister was inaugurated.
Banking, oil and cement stocks led the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index to hit 15,307 by mid-morning, then went down slightly to close at 15,275, an increase of 0.5%, or 77 points, from Wednesday’s close of 15,198.
“On the political side, things are moving in the right direction,” JS Global Capital director Mohamed Sohail said. “Stability is on the cards.”
Yousuf Raza Gilani was sworn in as prime minister on Tuesday as head of a coalition government after a year in which Pakistan saw a state of emergency, the sacking of top judges, a boycotted presidential election and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan’s market is protected from the current global economic turmoil because it’s a more local economy with only about 6% of the market’s capitalisation from overseas.
“That is low compared to other countries, so when there is a sell-off by foreigners, it has less effect,” Sohail said. “It is largely protected from foreign forces.”
About $4bn to 5bn of the Karachi exchange’s $75bn in capitalisation is foreign capital.
A UN report released yesterday offered more good news for the economy, projecting 6.5% growth through 2008 in their Escap Economic and Social Survey on Asia Pacific 2008. - DPA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Siege - A Poem By Ahmad Faraz Against The Dictatorship Of Zia Ul Haq

Related Posts: 1.  Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah Want Pakistan To Be A Theocracy Or A Secular State? 2. The Relationship Between Khadim & Makhdoom In Pakistan 3. Battle for God; Battleground Pakistan - a time has finally come to call a spade a spade 4. Pakistan - Facing Contradictory Strategic Choices In An Uncertain Region 5. Pakistan, Islamic Terror & General Zia-Ul-Haq 6. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 7. A new social contract in Pakistan between the Pakistani Federation and its components 8. Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers 9. Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ? 10. Balochistan - Troubles Of A Demographic Nature

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat . Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital and two cars packed with explosives were found in in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh- based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the " Indian Mujahideen. " Several TV news stations received an email five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message repo

Mir Chakar Khan Rind - A Warrior Hero Of Baluchistan & Punjab Provinces of Pakistan

By Sikander Hayat The areas comprising the state of Pakistan have a rich history and are steeped in the traditions of martial kind. Tribes which are the foundation stone of Pakistan come from all ethnic groups of Pakistan either they be Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan or Punjabi. One of these men of war & honour were Mir Chakar Khan Rind. He is probably the most famous leader coming out of Baloch ethnic group of Pakistan. Mir Chakar Khan Rind or Chakar-i-Azam (1468 – 1565 ) was a Baloch king and ruler of Satghara in (Southern Pakistani Punjab) in the 15th century. He is considered a folk hero of the Baloch people and an important figure in the Baloch epic Hani and Sheh Mureed. Mir Chakar lived in Sibi in the hills of Balochistan and became the head of Rind tribe at the age of 18 after the death of his father Mir Shahak Khan. Mir Chakar's kingdom was short lived because of a civil war between the Lashari and Rind tribes of Balochistan. Mir Chakar and Mir Gwaharam Khan Lashari, hea